Friday, July 30, 2010

Back to League Play

After a week off from league play for the Wizards where they got a confidence boosting win over Manchester United, they return to league play tomorrow when they'll take on Toronto FC. TFC has been busy this past week. They played FC Dallas to a 1-1 draw last Saturday, then played CD Montagua Tuesday night, beating them Tuesday night in Toronto. They'll also be heading down to Honduras on Tuesday to play CD Montagua in the return leg. Toronto played a mainly first team lineup on Tuesday and with a 1-0 lead heading into the second leg, they'll be looking to advance to the group stage. So it'll be interesting to see what lineup the Reds put out tomorrow.

The Wizards should have confidence heading into tomorrow's game, they took 4 out of 6 points on the 2 game road trip they were on, then got an impressive 2-1 win over Manchester United last Sunday. They should be full of confidence after that result especially. The team is playing much better, they're controlling the midfield, create chances, and the defense is improving more. With the way that the team has played the past few games I don't see Peter Vermes deviating from the lineup that he's started the last 3 games.

Key Match Up - Stephane Auvray vs Dwayne DeRosario - DeRosario is the key for the TFC midfield, shutting him down either in the midfield or in his withdrawn striker role will be the key for the Wizards and much of that responsibility is likely to fall on Auvray. If Auvray can shut down DeRosario KC will have a decent chance.

PREDICTION - Toronto is in a busy part of their schedule and seem to be interested in qualifying for the group stage of the Champion's League. If they are, we could see a bit of a different lineup on Saturday. If the Wizards have any great ideas of fighting for a playoff spot this year this is a game they have to win. Winning your home games is vital. With the confidence the Wizards have I think they can pull it off.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

i mean the line up is solid but Rocastle and Thomas arent good enough quality MLS players... Esocobar turned out bad, but you look at most Colombian defenders in the leaague, Olave, Conde, Hurtado, are aruably 1,2,3 top defenders in the league... still If Dayro Moreno can be a #10 we need to bring him in soon.